Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

Family group:

A Great War O.B.E. group of seven awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel B. A. Johnstone, West Riding Regiment, late Indian Army

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 1st type, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1919; India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Chin Hills 1892-93 (Captn., 21st Madras Pioneers); China 1900, 1 clasp, Relief of Pekin (Major, 1st Mad. Pioneers); 1914-15 Star (Major, W. Rid. R.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt. Col.); Delhi Durbar 1903, together with a set of related miniature dress medals (7), these mounted as worn, the second with officially re-engraved naming and the sixth officially re-impressed, contact marks and edge bruising, generally very fine

Five: Captain R. A. Johnstone

1939-45 Star; Africa Star, clasp, 8th Army; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals, contained in original addressed card forwarding box, extremely fine (19)
£600-700

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the collection of Angela and the late Douglas Bertram.

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Collection

O.B.E. London Gazette 3 June 1919.

Beresford Assheton Johnstone, who was born in March 1861, the eldest son of Captain (later Major-General) George Nassau Johnstone, was originally commissioned into the Hampshire Regiment as a 2nd Lieutenant in April 1881. Advanced to Lieutenant in April 1883, he was appointed to the Indian Army in the following year, when he joined the 21st Madras Pioneers as a Wing Officer.

Active service followed in the Chin Hills 1892-93, after which he transferred to the 1st Madras Infantry as a Double Company Commander, and, in 1900, was present with the regiment at the relief of Pekin. He was also present at the Delhi Durbar of 1903, when he acted as A.D.C. to General Wolfe Murray, but in April 1905, as a result of contracting malaria, he was invalided out in the rank of Major.

The outbreak of hostilities in August 1914 found him quickly recalled to the British Army, when he was ‘appointed second in command of the 9th The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, which he eventually commanded in the Ypres salient, being twice mentioned in despatches. He was invalided home with a strained heart, but without resting continued to train troops’ (Times obituary refers). Johnstone, who also commanded battalions of the York and Lancaster and South Staffordshire Regiments, ended the War back in India, as a depot C.O. at Kirkee and Poona, and was awarded the O.B.E. for this latter work in 1919.

The Colonel, who retired to Tenterden in Kent, died in January 1930.

Sold with a small quantity of original documentation, including M.I.D. certificate, dated 11 June 1920 and original Indian Army Officer’s Record of Services.

Also see Lot 434 for further family awards.